(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method of operating a side mirror of a vehicle. In particular, the system and method of the present invention can fold or unfold a side mirror when an operational error occurs.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A side mirror is installed to a front pillar or a side door of a vehicle so as to obtain rear view.
A side mirror of a vehicle includes a mirror, a mirror housing supporting the mirror, and a supporter fixing the mirror housing to a side door.
Since the side mirror protrudes from the side of a vehicle, another vehicle may collide with it. Additionally, the side mirror may prevent problems when parking a vehicle in a tight spot. In order to solve this problem, the side mirror is configured to be foldable. The side mirror can be manually folded or can be folded by a motor which is installed in the mirror housing.
An electrically folded side mirror includes parts which are disposed inside the vehicle and parts which are disposed in the mirror housing. Parts which are disposed inside the vehicle include a switch which is located inside a door trim and controls the folding and unfolding operations of the side mirror; and a polarity conversion circuit which is disposed in the door and controls the electric power input to a motor from a battery and the direction of electric power input according to a switching operation of the switch. Parts which are disposed in the mirror housing include a motor; a gear device including a plurality of gears such as a warm gear which transfers driving force of the motor to the supporter and a hinge connected to the door; and a circuit breaker which prevents excessive current from being applied to the motor.
There is a problem in that the side mirror may not be folded and unfolded in spite of the operation of the motor. Such a malfunction of the side mirror may be caused by mismatching between parts of the system. For example, after the side mirror is unfolded by the rotation of the motor, the side mirror may not fold even though the motor operates to fold the side mirror. In particular, if there is a temperature difference between a folding timing and an unfolding timing, gears may be firmly engaged to one another by the temperature drop, and this may cause the side mirror not to rotate. A state that the driving motor cannot operate even through electric power is supplied is called a blocking state.
In such a case, if a driver toggles the switch to the folding position and the unfolding position so as to repeat the folding operation the unfolding operation of the side mirror, the blocking state may be cancelled.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method of operating a side mirror of a vehicle that cancels the blocking state of a side mirror of a vehicle. The present invention provides such a system and a method.